Deadline: June 15, 2017

Applications are open for the World Summit Awards 2017. The World Summit Award is a unique awards system, selecting and promoting local digital innovation with high social impact. Combining an ongoing series of international events and activities with a global network of start-ups, social entrepreneurs, mentors, jurors, speakers, experts, government leaders, academia and civil society, WSA is an international platform for cut edge innovative approaches how ICTs can have an impact on society. WSA leverages its global network to ensure a global knowledge exchange.

WSA has been initiated in 2003 in the framework of the UN World Summit on the Information Society (UN WSIS). It contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goals Agenda by recognizing local digital content with an impact on society, demonstrating the richness and diversity of innovative applications. WSA keeps a close strategic association with the United Nation agendas. By reporting national digital developments back at the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (UN WSIS) it is supporting the UN Post-2015 Sustainable Development Agenda.

Benefits

Winners of the World Summit Awards benefit from:

• Invitation to the WSA World Congress including:
  • Pitching seminars
  • 7 minute pitch session in front of an international audience during the Congress
  • A program of especially crafted workshops for the winners
  • Invitation to the prestigious award ceremony and Gala night
  • Board and lodging for the durance of the Congress
  • Eye to eye exchange with speakers, jurors and international guests
• Integration into a network of internationally recognized digital content developers
• Access to the WSA community of global experts and industry leaders from over 178 countries
• Interaction with world-renowned sponsors and partners of the WSA community
• Workshops that will aid you in making your project in obtaining global recognition
• A video that highlights your project
• Special placement on WSA website, youtube channel and social media promotion
• Long-term coverage within all WSA editorial channels such as Blogs, Articles and Success Stories

Nominees’ Benefits

A nomination for the World Summit Award is already a win – these are your rewards

• Receive more coverage on your product
  • The WSA provides nominees with press templates and helps them to gain the attention of national media with the support of our international team of high class media and ICT experts.
• Receive a World Summit Award nominee seal which you can use on your websites, your social media channels and your publications.
• Earn a chance to receive feedback from the Grand Jury
• Being nominated for the World Summit Award means that your product is the best in the country in one of the 8 categories.
  • Experience has shown that this honor can immensely improve your outreach.

Eligibility

• Producer
  • Any company, organisation or individual from all UN and UNESCO member state are welcome to apply;
  • The Youth Category “Innovation for the SDG’s” is limited to projects initiated and executed by people under the age of 30 from any of the UN and UNESCO member states.
• Product
  • WSA is strictly restricted to digital projects with a strong impact on society;
  • Submissions for the WSA can contain mobile applications, sms based products, webpages, databases, kiosk installations, wearables, IoT etc. There is no limitation regarding the platforms or channels the projects work with;
  • The projects can be maximal 2 years old at the date of nomination;
  • No ideas, drafts, demonstrations or concepts are accepted, all submitted projects must be market ready or already on the market.

Application Process

WSA is a nomination based award system. To apply you need to be nominated by either a WSA National Expert or a Youth Ambassador. Nominations to the international WSA are possible through national contests and national Expert panel selection. Please read the section below carefully.

• Step 1: To find out who your WSA National Expert or Youth Ambassador is, please click here. WSA office will be happy to introduce you to your WSA National Expert or Youth Ambassador. Once you have contacted your expert, they will go through the steps you will need to take in order to qualify for national selection with you. Some countries also offer application through a national contest.
• Step 2: Your project will be reviewed and evaluated if it meets the eligibility criteria and standards of WSA. If your project is chosen to be nominated in one of the WSA categories, your WSA National Expert or Youth Ambassador will enter your data in the WSA online Contest Database. Please make sure your WSA National Expert or Youth Ambassador has the right contact data.
• Step 3: Upon nomination, you will receive a confirmation email inviting you to complete your application. Please make sure to check you spam. After submitting your application you are officially enrolled in the global WSA. An especially assembled international Jury will then evaluated all enrolled projects and choose the 46 winners of each year.

For more information, visit World Summit Awards.